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TWU has no detailed records on fund

Annette Blackwell

No one from the Transport Workers Union (TWU) can explain why an international money transfer was used to send money from Victoria to a union in NSW.

The $20,000 from a Victoria/Tasmania TWU branch fighting fund was sent to the Electrical Trade Union (ETU) in NSW in 2012 at the request of TWU national secretary Tony Sheldon.

It was just one of several transactions from the Victoria/Tasmania 'Team Fund' account for which there are no detailed records explaining expenditure.

The Royal Commission into Union Governance and Corruption on Tuesday was examining how two funds - the Team Fund and the Transport, Logistics, Advocacy and Training Association (TLATA) fund - were used by the TWU branch.

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It emerged they were used to finance union battles on home turf and of political allies in other states.

TWU branch secretary Wayne Mader said there were no written reports or specific regulations for the Team Fund, which now held about $260,000 and had been running since the 1960s.

He denied allegations by former TWU official Arthur Wood that the fund was "secretive", that people were compelled to contribute and given no information about where the money went.

"It was logical ... that if you were in a team you were approached to contribute", said Mr Mader.

He was asked by counsel advising the commission Jeremy Stoljar SC about specific withdrawals from the account.

One was for a sum of $20,000 to an Electrical Trade Union fund in NSW at the request of Mr Sheldon, made through international transfer.

Mr Mader said he did not know why the money was transferred in that way, he just followed the transaction details.

Two other TWU witnesses - John Berger, a national trustee of the union, and former official John Halloran - also said they did not know why the money was sent by international transfer.

A query to Mr Sheldon's office about the international transfer brought the response that TWU leaders, like others in the labour movement, very publicly supported Bernie Riordan as ETU secretary in 2012.

There was no immediate recollection of how that contribution was technically made, a union spokesman said in a media release.

"The point must not be lost that election funds are contributed voluntarily for democratic purposes," he said.

The commission also heard on Tuesday that the TWU Tasmania/Victoria branch supported the election campaign of Health Services Union official Pauline Fegan to the tune of $15,000 in 2009 and gave $5,000 to Mr Sheldon's campaign to become ALP national president.

Another $10,000 was given to an entity called the McLean Forum Ltd in 2012.